Gordon Greer (born 14 December 1980) is a Scottish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender. Greer played for

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

(two spells),

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional association football, football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they wer ...

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

(two spells),

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

and

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

during his career. He also played in 11 full international matches for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

between 2013 and 2016.

Club career

Greer was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and after a single season with Port Glasgow Juniors, began his professional career with

, where he played in only 33 matches before securing a £250,000 move to English Premiership club Blackburn Rovers. Greer made only appearance for Blackburn in the

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. Greer had a spell on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

with

, scoring once versus

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

before returning to Scotland to play for

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

club Kilmarnock. Greer first received international recognition, having been

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

for Scotland B versus Poland B in December 2005 and versus Republic of Ireland B in November 2006. In July 2007, Greer signed for

after he rejected a new contract offer from Kilmarnock. Greer's first season at Doncaster was blighted by several injuries and he was restricted to only six appearances in the 2007–08 season, though he did manage to score his first goal for the club, against

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

. During the 2008–09 season Greer joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club Swindon Town on an initial one-month loan, that was later extended for a further two months thanks to a financial contribution from TrustSTFC's Red Army Fund. On his return to Doncaster, Greer was released from his contract on 7 May 2009, after only 12 appearances in two seasons with the club. Following his release from Doncaster, Greer soon agreed a two-year contract with Swindon Town on a free transfer in July 2009, having impressed after his loan at the club. After officially joining the club, Greer was announced as the club's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

for the 2009–10 season. On 17 May 2010, Greer was shown a straight red card for a high tackle in the play-off 2nd leg versus

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

, that Swindon went on to win on penalties. Greer's sending off meant that he was suspended from the play-off final versus

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

on 29 May 2010. On 10 July 2010, after weeks of speculation and numerous verbal and written approaches for Greer, it was suggested that he would travel down to

on the following Monday for a medical to agree a move to the ''Seagulls'' for a reported fee of £250,000 on a three-year deal. The deal was delayed until the next day, when Greer completed his move to the ''Seagulls''. On 4 August 2010, it was also revealed that Brighton manager

Gus Poyet Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez (; born 15 November 1967) is a Uruguayan professional football manager and former footballer. He is currently the head coach of the Greece national football team. Poyet played as a midfielder and began his car ...

had given Greer the club captaincy for the 2010–11 season. Greer made his Brighton debut in the second game of the season on 14 August 2010 versus

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

after serving a two-match ban but was sent off after 51 minutes for violent conduct in a 2–2 draw. One of Rochdale's goals came from a penalty after Greer's red card incident. Greer then helped guide Brighton to winning the League One title and promotion to the Championship that season and stayed as on as club captain for the 2011–12 season. Greer scored his first ''Seagulls'' goal in a 2–0 win versus

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

in October 2011. In January 2012, Greer received another straight red card for violent conduct in Brighton's 3–0 win versus

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, his sending off arriving only three minutes before the end of the match. At the end of that season, Greer was subject to a bid from Barnsley, that was rejected and Poyet later stated that he wasn't up for sale. Gordon Greer (2)

Greer was released by Brighton at the end of the 2015–16 season. Greer then signed a one-year contract with Blackburn Rovers. and his league debut was on 6 August 2016 versus

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the Football League and Premier League, who have played there since 1890. It is an all seater multi-sports facili ...

. Greer was released by ''Rovers'' at the end of the 2016–17 season, during which the Ewood Park club were relegated to

. Greer returned to

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire ( sco, Aest Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquart ...

to rejoin Kilmarnock in July 2017 for the 2017–18 season. He made his last appearance for Kilmarnock in February 2018, and was released from his contract in August 2018. Greer announced his retirement from playing in October 2018.

International career

On 21 May 2013, Greer was called up to the

squad for the first time for the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

qualifier versus

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. Greer received a second call-up on 23 August 2013. Greer made his international debut later that year, becoming the oldest player to make his first appearance for Scotland since

Ronnie Simpson Ronald Campbell Simpson (11 October 1930 – 19 April 2004) was a Scottish football player and coach. He is mainly remembered for his time with Celtic, where he was the goalkeeper in the ''Lisbon Lions'' team that won the European Cup in 1967. ...

in the 1960s. Greer made his first competitive appearance in October 2014, partnering Russell Martin in a

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

match versus

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Greer made 11 appearances for Scotland in total, with his last cap coming in June 2016.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Brighton & Hove Albion *

Football League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

: 2010–11 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2010–11 League One

References

External links

Gordon Greer player profile
at swindon-town-fc.co.uk * {{DEFAULTSORT:Greer, Gordon 1980 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish footballers Scotland B international footballers Scotland international footballers Association football defenders Port Glasgow F.C. players Clyde F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players